Recently an article appeared in Real Simple (thanks to reader ‘dm’ for the heads up) about four female mayors across the country who, “are making lasting changes in their own communities.” The four mayors covered in the article were from Piedmont, OK (pop. 6,500); Gary, IN (pop. 80,294); Perth Amboy, NJ (pop. 51,000), and last but not least Burnsville, MN (pop. 60,000). These female mayors all come from varying backgrounds and in the articles face challenges which are unique, however, one mayor stands alone as a shining beacon of adamant narcissism, Burnsville’s own Mayor Elizabeth Kautz.

The Mayor of Piedmont, Oklahoma races from the relative safety of a tornado shelter at her home and heads straight for the destruction caused by a tornado as wide as a city block. The Mayor of Gary, Indiana, a Harvard graduate and former not-so-squeaky clean Indiana Attorney General, came back to Gary in an attempt to recover the glory days of the Chicago suburb. The Mayor of Perth Amboy, New Jersey uncovered massive corruption led by the previous mayor who put the town a quarter of a billion dollars in debt. Aside from the questionable ethics of Gary, Indiana’s Harvard graduate and former state Attorney General, the examples and histories provided as to why these three female mayors were worthy of inclusion in the magazine’s pages were clear. However, one of the four mayors stood apart from the others, showing just how insignificant and meaningless her tenure has been: Elizabeth Kautz’s resume includes a desire to clean up graffiti in a shopping center and having to deal with a myriad of challenges along the way including having her house egged and her garden damaged!

But the most important part of what Kautz has done for Burnsville is not cleaning up yolk or replanting azaleas in her trampled garden, it’s rebuilding the downtown which consists of foreclosed buildings, empty apartments and offices, a restaurant built on land basically given away to a restaurant which was supposed to have white tablecloths but doesn’t, a medical arts building which is now a CVS, and the crown jewel…a twenty-plus million dollar performing arts center (emphasis mine):

During her second term, she continued to work toward more redevelopment, including plans for hotels, restaurants, and her ultimate dream: a vibrant downtown area, including a performing arts center and a park.

[…]

In 2009, the pair attended the grand opening of Elizabeth’s performing arts center.

We’ve known for years Elizabeth’s performing arts center would be a detriment to the city counter to her claims it would not raise taxes or otherwise negatively impact the city in any way. Unfortunately, as the City of Burnsville found out approximately two weeks ago, that’s simply not the case.

Improved and sustained balanced operations in the Performing Arts Fund

So, the two things the Mayor has touted so heavily in her years at the helm as her main contributions to the city: its Aaa bond rating may very well be negatively impacted by the other, Elizabeth’s performing arts center. But for all of this, what it comes down to is that she doesn’t run this town. She is simply one vote on a council of five but her short-term outlook which has driven so many poor decisions in the city are slowly creeping up on her and maybe, just maybe, will Run This Town Into the Ground.

Have you see the entirety of the Real Simple article? If so what did you think? Did you spit egg yolk all over your screen when you read it especially considering the real challenges the other mayors were facing when they took office? Did you love the fact that of the four mayors, only two submitted photos of themselves, one in a pantsuit and Mayor Kautz wearing an evening gown at the BPAC and pretending to be one of the few singers to ever appear on stage there? Are you at all concerned with Moody’s recent negative outlook and their note how the BPAC may drop the city’s bond rating? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

12 Responses to “
Mayor Kautz “Runs This Town” Into the Ground ”

I read the article in the magazine (September 2012, for anyone interested), and I honestly felt bad for the other women featured, because I couldn’t take it seriously, since Kautz was chosen along with them.

And, likely, with the average Minnesotan’s need to be “connected” to fame, people will likely eat this up.

Well… Bill in fairness the article clearly stated that it was about mayors making “lasting changes” to their communities. It didn’t appear, from your summary, to identify if those changes were supposed to be positive or negative. I would suggest that her honor has in fact made significant changes to Burnsville in her time there.

I wonder where Moodys gets their numbers? Are they looking at the $275,000 loss the Kautz taxpayer funded propaganda machine has been feeding the journalists or are they looking at the Operating Loss in the audited 2011 CAFR reports for the PAC of $841,414? Remember 2011 was the PAC’s best year ever. How much do you think it will improve?

I know I annoy your readers when I keep singing the same old song that no one wants to ever hear again but if propaganda worked for Adolf Hitler and it has been working for Mayor Kautz, could we not counter it with repetition of the truth? Adolf Hitler is quoted as saying, “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it.” Why can’t we do the same thing with the truth?”

You are right, she has only one vote! However, with two followers (minions) on her council as she had in 2007, she was running the town.

Yes, I revisted the string you mentioned in #10 above and posted a link to further substantiate my comments.

[…] sent Mayor Elizabeth Kautz into a frenzy. Instead of admitting her faults which have ranged from threatening the city’s bond rating she has so proudly proclaimed as her biggest value-add to the city by pushing forward with the […]